Of all of the head-coaching modifications within the WNBA this offseason, Friday’s transfer is likely to be the largest.
The Indiana Fever named Stephanie White their new head coach, tasking her with main Caitlin Clark and a Fever squad that would garner extra consideration and scrutiny than any group in WNBA historical past.
White returns to Indiana following a two-year tenure with the Connecticut Solar. White was the Fever head coach for 2 seasons in 2015 and 2016 and has a protracted tenure within the group: 4 years as a participant within the early 2000s and 4 extra as an assistant (together with the Fever’s 2012 championship season) previous to her head-coaching stint. The Solar introduced White’s departure Monday, a day after the Fever mentioned they have been shifting on from former coach Christie Sides.
ESPN appears to be like at what White’s homecoming means for Clark, the Fever and their championship timeline, and the place the Solar go from right here.
Is White an excellent match for Indiana? What are the largest belongings she brings to the Fever?
Michael Voepel: She is an effective match. In 20-plus years as a coach, she has grown lots. White was a key a part of the Fever’s 2012 WNBA title as an assistant to Lin Dunn. She has beforehand labored for Kelly Krauskopf, who has returned to the Fever as president. And as a broadcast analyst for faculty basketball, White known as a number of of Clark’s Iowa video games and is aware of her properly.
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White can also be a basketball legend in Indiana. A famous person at Seeger Excessive Faculty in West Lebanon, Indiana, within the Nineteen Nineties, she led Purdue to the Large Ten’s solely NCAA girls’s basketball championship in 1999. She performed 5 WNBA seasons, together with 4 with the Fever, and acquired into teaching on the faculty stage at Ball State in 2003. White moved to WNBA teaching in 2007 as an assistant with the Chicago Sky earlier than spending 2011-2016 with the Fever as an assistant after which head coach.
White was the top coach at Vanderbilt from 2016-2021, however had much less success there than within the professional sport. In her two seasons with the Solar, White went 55-25 and made the semifinals each years, successful WNBA coach of the 12 months in 2023. Alyssa Thomas was the MVP runner-up in White’s first season and DiJonai Carrington was the league’s most improved participant this season.
White coached in opposition to Clark and the Fever this 12 months, going 3-1 within the common season and sweeping Indiana 2-0 within the playoffs. White can use that scouting and preparation information to assist the Fever enhance in 2025.
The place can White assist Clark develop essentially the most?
Voepel: White is aware of what it is wish to be a participant within the highlight who desires her teammates to really feel simply as valued. That was her function at Purdue, and she or he has watched Clark navigate the identical circumstances at Iowa and with the Fever. Clark is a scholar of basketball who learns from everybody she will be able to. Clark is aware of White’s historical past and the frequent floor they’ve, even when 25 years separate the previous Large Ten stars.
And whereas they already have been conversant in one another, they now have a shared function. White will work with Clark on staying aggressive as a passer whereas trimming turnovers, leverage her strengths in opposition to her weaknesses on protection and continue to grow as a pacesetter — balancing enjoying with ardour and holding her cool.
Alexa Philippou: One notable distinction from when White final coached the Fever: These groups had already gained a championship and leaned extra veteran, significantly with franchise participant Tamika Catchings within the twilight of her profession. (Catchings’ remaining season was White’s final in Indianapolis too.) White’s 2023 and 2024 Solar groups have been related as properly; they did not win a title, however the gamers have been regulars in at the least the WNBA semifinals.
Taking on a youthful Indiana group powered by a pair of current No. 1 picks and numerous different inexperienced expertise presents a unique dynamic. It’s going to be fascinating to see how Indiana’s constructing course of unfolds within the years to return, with Clark and Boston on the precipice of superstardom and on a franchise so hungry for a deep playoff run after a prolonged drought.
What does White’s hiring imply for the Fever’s ceiling in 2025 and past?
Philippou: The 2025 season will mark a brand new period for the group, one when the stakes are increased than ever. Krauskopf is again to function president, and Amber Cox is available in from Dallas as Indiana’s common supervisor, with Dunn shifting to a senior advisor function.
In including White, the Fever’s intentions are clear: Top-of-the-line coaches within the league since her return in 2023 will likely be tasked with getting Clark, Aliyah Boston and ideally Kelsey Mitchell again to the mountaintop the Fever achieved in 2012. Her objective is to show a group coming off its first playoff berth since 2016 into a real contender.
The three earlier occasions that franchises drafted consecutive No. 1 picks — the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm twice — every gained championships inside 4 years. White’s hiring signifies the Fever are angling to do the identical.
Stephanie White performed for Indiana from 2000-04, was an assistant coach on the Fever’s 2012 WNBA championship group and was Indiana’s head coach for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Williams Paul/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire through Getty ImagesWas shifting on from Sides the proper name for Indiana?
Kevin Pelton: That is the place the timing is essential. I do not assume Sides deserved to be fired based mostly on her two seasons with the Fever, however I additionally assume White is an improve on the sidelines. The best way issues went down, with the Chicago Solar-Occasions reporting final week that Indiana was a finalist to rent White earlier than the Fever had fired Sides, was messy at finest. But when White leads the Fever deep within the playoffs, that will not seemingly be a part of the story going ahead.
Final 12 months, the Fever had the WNBA’s finest offense on a per-possession foundation after their 2-9 begin, however ranked tenth out of 12 in defensive score.
That does not fall fully, and even primarily, on Sides. She inherited a group that ranked final in protection in 2022 earlier than the arrival of Boston and Clark, and Indiana lacked each dimension on the wing and defensive depth within the frontcourt. Nonetheless, White stored Connecticut among the many league’s elite defenses the previous two seasons regardless of appreciable roster turnover, so bringing her in is undoubtedly about constructing a championship-caliber protection to go together with an offense that’s already prepared for prime time.
The place does White’s departure depart the Solar?
Pelton: No WNBA group has been capable of climate turnover on each the roster and sidelines higher than Connecticut. Solely Thomas stays from the rotation coached by Curt Miller that reached the 2019 Finals, but the Solar’s streak of advancing to the semifinals or past is now at six years and counting. But with Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones all unsigned for 2025 (although Thomas could possibly be designated Connecticut’s core participant) and White gone, that observe file feels extra tenuous than ever.
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The plain query right here is whether or not Miller would possibly return after the Los Angeles Sparks fired him on Sept. 24, kicking off the WNBA’s teaching turnover. In seven years in Connecticut, he gained WNBA coach of the 12 months twice and led the Solar to the Finals twice. In addition to White did to modernize Connecticut’s offense with improved spacing, the group could be hard-pressed to do higher than Miller as a substitute.
Philippou: Solar president Jen Rizzotti advised ESPN that Connecticut’s coach should be ready to steer the group and franchise amid an unsure time. Even past this upcoming winter, nearly all of the league goes to hit free company heading into 2026, when a brand new CBA will presumably come into impact.
The franchise — which was bought by the Mohegan tribe and relocated from Orlando previous to the 2003 season — is a small-market group and does not have the status for having the sources of the Aces, Phoenix Mercury or New York Liberty.
However Rizzotti acknowledged that entrance places of work league-wide know they are going to need to promote gamers on their franchises within the coming years. “And for me,” she mentioned, “that’s going to be amenities, that’s going to be tradition, that’s going to be assist for our gamers off the court docket in no matter ways in which appears to be like like. So we perceive that, and we’re going to verify we’re placing ourselves able to compete with different groups within the league in that regard.”
There is no official phrase on whether or not a apply facility could possibly be imminent — once they cannot apply in Mohegan Solar Enviornment, the group practices within the Mohegan Tribal Middle, which they do not have unique use of. When requested about the potential for constructing one, Rizzotti mentioned, “My possession group could be very conscious of the funding stage that must be made for us to remain aggressive. … They know that it is a totally different ball sport. They perceive what proudly owning a WNBA group means going into the long run. They usually’re ready to assist that.”